I'm glad you told me
by LoveHurtComfort
Summary: "Judy, please tell me?" "But Nick- "Don't you trust me...?" The fox searches her eyes for the answer. Judy bites her lip nervously. This was a risk but she was kind of stuck. Either keep secrets from her best friend and cause him to feel he's not trusted, or tell him the story about why she was afraid of his kind...
1. Chapter 1

"I'll take you on anytime anywhere."

"Is that right? How about it then? Right here, right now."

"You're on Carrots." The fox smirks as he pushes the couch out of the way towards the coffee table.

Nick's lounge room had been transformed into the ideal wrestling arena.

"You ready?!" Judy asks excitedly.

"More ready than you are, lets get this over with." Nick cracks his knuckles.

"Alright..." Judy smirks, and launches herself at the fox, ready to kick him in the head but Nick reacts quickly, and dodges what might have been a powerful blow.

"Not bad..." He nods approvingly as the bunny skids to a halt behind him. "Let's see how you do with this-" Nick swipes at Judy and thinking quickly, she bounces up and off the wall landing right on top of the unsuspecting fox.

"Ha! I w- Judy starts but soon finds herself back on the ground again as Nick throws her off and attempts to tackle her to the ground, but Judy is slippery. In no time, she has worked her way out of the fox's grip.

Tightly twisting Nick's paw behind his back, she manages to press him firmly against the wall.

"There, I told you I would win!" The bunny announces as she lets him go and takes a step back.

"Only, you're forgetting one thing..." Nick sighs as he turns around and dusts himself off.

"What's that?" Judy asks confused, but Nick doesn't answer, instead he grabs her and tackles her, pressing her head to the ground and leaning his arm against her back to keep her down.

"HEY, THATS NOT FAIR! Nick!" Judy screams.

"There's a three second rule Carrots." Nick begins, tightening his grip slightly. "If you can't get out of the tackle before the three seconds is up, THEN you lose. That gives us a chance at a fair fight. So you think you can get out of this one?"

Judy struggles, determined to get the best of him, but his hold is too strong and she gives up.

"You should never give your opponent the chance to strike back. You taking notes Carrots?"

"No, ugh. I went to cop school Nick. I learnt all this, now let me go!"

Nick starts to release his death grip on the bunny but then he feels something.

"Hold on, what's this?" Nick asks as his paw rubs against something underneath the fur on Judy's cheek.

The fox's grip loosens significantly in surprise and Judy takes this chance to wrench herself away, standing quickly. "Nothing- She starts to object but her friend had already felt it.

"Is that a..." Nick starts but doesn't say it. He couldn't be sure, but to him it feels like a massive-

-scar, yes! It's a scar. But it's from a long time ago, so you don't have to worry." Judy interjects.

A few sarcastic remarks run through Nick's head, but the way Judy was trying to brush it off and the size of the mark were a little worrying. Nick struggles for the right thing to say but settles for- "How did you get it?"

"I got it when I was a kid Nick, I don't think it really matters now..." Judy struggles herself for excuses. She couldn't let Nick find out a fox did it- he's so sensitive about that kind of stuff and she doesn't want to cause any drama.

"Well... It does, if it hurt you..." Nick says slowly. "Let me feel again." Nick reaches out to feel her cheek for a second time and gently runs the pads of his paw over the old scratch marks.

"Come on Nick, you're being too serious. We should start putting the living room back together..."

"Judy, please tell me?"

"But Nick-

"Don't you trust me...?" The fox searches her eyes for the answer.

Oh no. Nick thinks she's refusing to open up to him, after he shared his own past with her.

"No no Nick, it's not like that!"

Nick took in a breath, preparing to say something but quickly closes his mouth again. He doesn't want to relive the last argument they had, so he says nothing.

He had truly been starting to think he and Judy had something going... Apparently he'd gotten too comfortable with her too quick, when she clearly didn't have the same feeling towards him. Had she been uncomfortable when he told her about the muzzle? Was he intruding on her life? Was it that every time he showed such a display of emotions he was scaring her away? These thoughts all come flooding into Nick's mind all at once and though it was something he is familiar with, it was something that hurt worse every time it happened, and for it to happen with Judy...

It happens so quickly that if you saw it you would have thought you imagined it, but tears sprang up in his eyes and he quickly blinked them back, remembering he was trying NOT to scare her off.

Easy as ever from so much practice, Nick straightens up and masks his troubled eyes with his signature smile. "It's fine Carrots, I get it."

Judy is taken aback for a second, confused because she hadn't given him anything to understand, but then a memory comes floating through her mind and the words her friend had uttered the day he shared his past are left ringing in her head...

 _"Never let them see that they get to you."_

" _He could be doing that right now!"_ She realises.

"Wait Nick, it's really not like that..." She starts.

Wilde lets his guard down just a little, surprised that she was still going after he'd given in.

"Listen, I do trust you Nick... I just, there's nothing that I wouldn't share with you if you really wanted to hear, so I'll tell you..." Judy bites her lip nervously. This was a risk but she was kind of stuck. Either keep secrets from her best friend and cause him to feel he's not trusted, or tell him the story about why she was afraid of his kind...

"You don't have to..."

"No Nick, you asked four times and you deserve to know." She takes a deep breath and begins.

"It was one day at the Carrot Festival. There was a fox called Gideon Grey."

"The same Gideon Grey who made that blueberry pie?"

"Yeah! That's him. So as you know I've always wanted to be a police officer and that day I was in a play, so I had a cop outfit on and everything but that doesn't even really matter."

Nick says nothing, but he was smiling a real smile so Judy goes on.

"After the play when I was walking with my parents, I saw him following my friends around, and back then he was a bit of trouble so I went to check it out."

Nick's expression darkens slightly as he realises where this story might be going but let's his friend continue without a word.

"When I caught up with them, I saw Gideon stealing tickets from my friends and being rude, so I went over there and told him to give them back but-" Judy takes a breath. "But he challenged me to make him so I kicked him in the face- not that hard! But he told me I was gonna pay for it, and held me down and told me to remember this moment any time I ever thought I would amount to anything more than a dumb carrot farming bunny!" Judy raises her voice as she lets out the anger she didn't know she was holding.

"Woah Carrots, calm down. It's alright." Nick reassures.

Judy's mind returns to the present, and she is calm and forgiving again.

Nick gives her a moment, before encouraging her to continue. "What happened next?"

"Right, the scar... Gideon said I didn't know when to give up, held me down, and sliced me with his claws..."

A look settles on Nick's face, a full understanding of why she was wary of foxes, why she carried fox repellent, how brave she had been to push all that aside for him when they first met. She was never stereotyping without thinking, she was afraid for a reason and now he understood everything.

"I'm sorry..." Nick apologises.

Judy looks surprised. "For what? It's not your fault."

"No Judy, I'm sorry that happened to you, and because by thinking that you were judging me, I was judging you. You had the right to be scared of me..."

"I'm not scared of you Nick." Judy reassures him. "I trust you. You proved to me for good that you can't ever judge an animal by how they look. You did your kind proud."

"Thanks Carrots." Nick smiles. "I'm glad you told me."

 **Thank you for reading! If you have something to say about this story or if you liked it or if there's something I need to change, please review! That would be awesome** ;)


	2. Chapter 2

**THANK YOU for all the favourites reviews, and follows! I know it took forever, (sorry I'm slow) but I wrote more. If** **people are interested, I'll write a third chapter.**

Miss Judy Hopps was alone, laying on her bed in her tiny apartment. The original idea was for this to be relaxing, but she couldn't stop thinking about what happened with Nick the other day.

Judy had never realised how much the Carrots Day Fair incident had affected her. She hadn't been too put down at the time when it happened, she always tried to stay positive when it came to stuff like that, but maybe when she had refused to tell Nick about it the other day, it wasn't just because she didn't want to upset him... It was because she hadn't wanted to remember it.

Judy sighs. Now that the subject had been brought up she couldn't quit thinking about it, and it was driving her insane! But why? Gideon had apologised! She had forgiven him! It was ages ago, the wound had healed and on top of that, she had proven him wrong and become a cop! Everyone was proud of her. There was nothing more to think, all the questions had been asked and all the answers had been revealed.

"So why. Is. This. Bothering me?!" Judy groans as she takes her pillow and slams it into her face repeatedly.

Judy suddenly realises she'd said that out loud and the obnoxious neighbours in the next room had probably heard and were surely getting prepared to shout something through the walls but it doesn't happen.

"Must be out..." The bunny sighs as she gets up with the intention of finding a book to help keep her mind off all that Gideon stuff. Maybe she would listen to her favourite Gazelle album at the same time -that would surely serve to drown out her thoughts while a story kept the memories at bay, at the same time as cheering her up!- but suddenly she hears a knock at her door.

"Ugh!" Judy groans as the person continues to knock in an annoying tune. She should have known she could never have been lucky enough to get a break from her neighbours!

"Would you just leave me alone this once?! I'm having a bad day okay?" She shouts through the door from where she's standing.

"What? Carrots it's me!" Comes the startled and slightly muffled reply.

Judy's ears perk up in immediate recognition and she runs to open the door. "Nick?!" She exclaims happily and throws herself forward to hug him.

"Woah," Nick stumbles back as he is propelled back by a living torpedo. "Happy to see me huh?"

"No -uh I mean yes! This was just an unexpected surprise! What are you doing here?" Judy asks, backing up.

"Just thought I'd come over to check out your apartment. I haven't seen it yet." Nick says as he peers past his friend for a sticky beak at her place.

"Oh yeah, yeah come in, make yourself comfortable." Judy encourages and leads him into the room.

The apartment is surprisingly small compared with his own place and slightly under furnished, but the bunny had worked with what she had to make it really nice. It wasn't the kind of place you would invite your mates over for a party, but more of a comfy spot you could retreat to at the end of the day. Since moving in she had spread blankets out on the floor and stacked a pile of pillows in one corner. She had pot plants lined up on the shelf and her desk was a complete mess.

"Sit wherever you like, bed, cushions, desk, wherever." Judy instructs.

Nick decides the pillow pile looks pretty good and simply flops there, and Judy sits on the bed.

"Well..." Nick starts, looking around. "I like what you've done with the place."

"You didn't see it before I decorated." Judy reminds him.

"I know. But I've seen an empty apartment before, it's not like they come like this. So how's your day been Carrots?"

"Oh, it was fine, how about yours?" Judy returns politely.

Nick straightens up a bit from where he's lounging. "Really? You're gonna pull that one on me after shouting you've had a bad day at me through the door?"

"Oh right... That..." Judy sighs and lays back flat on the bed. "I guess you wanna know what I was talking about huh."

"I did just ask." Nick reminds her.

"Alright. It's just, what we talked about the other day, with the scar and Gideon- It's like I dug up all the memories and the shovel broke so I can't bury them again! It's like no one ever believed in me. Not even my parents! It's just so frustrating when people say I'm a dumb carrot farming bunny. And what's wrong with carrot farming anyway? It's my family's profession! It's like I don't even care about the scar, I just hate it when people tell me I'm never going to amount to anything like on the street when you– I mean-" Judy's eyes widen and she puts a paw over her mouth as she remembers properly who it is she is speaking to. She'd gotten too carried away.

The two stare at each other for a long awkward moment, both feeling the weight of what they both knew she had been about to say.

The fox remained expressionless as a blurred memory of his own negative words floated in his mind. He remembered giving somewhat of a speech, mostly guessing that she came to Zootopia thinking it would be perfect. He'd told her animals here don't get along, she should give up her dreams of being a cop or she would end up living in emotional and physical squalor, and predicted that she would run back home with her tail between her legs to become a carrot farmer... Nick remembers saying it but he hadn't thought that it would get to her. He'd basically been a stranger at that point after all. She always seemed so positive about everything and yet here she was struggling to keep the negative at bay.

He couldn't let her stop now though. She had to know he had been wrong. Everyone had been wrong. She had taught them all something valuable, and everybody respected her. "Judy... I'm sorry I made it hard for you."

"Oh um.. it wasn't just you Nick, it was a lot of people. I used to just block all of that you know? Bury all the memories but now I... I just can't."

"Wait, Carrots, you mean to tell me you've been burying all your bad memories?"

"Yeah, but that talk the other day dug them back up and I can't get rid of them now."

"You shouldn't do that though Carrots..." Nick sighs.

"Hey... Don't go all serious on me Nick-" Judy starts to feel a little uncomfortable but Nick isn't finished.

"No Judy this is serious, I don't want you to go through that, constantly dwelling on your past-"

"Don't you do that!?" Judy reels.

"No Judy, I remember my past, it affects me. I went through a stage where I was thinking about it all the time but it's not like that anymore.

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Judy asks, raising her voice a little more. He couldn't just tell her what to do like this could he? He can't just pretend he knows exactly what she's going through when she's expressed so little?

Nick begins to feel agitated. "You could start by not holding a grudge."

"Holding a grudge? What?"

"Do you forgive me for what I said Carrots?"

"No I- I'm not holding a grudge Nick, but I still don't like that you said that."

"What do you want me to do about it?!" Nick asks, raising his voice as well.

"I don't know, nothing? You asked me to tell you." Judy says. She was regretting her decision to trust him right now.

"Yeah but I didn't ask for this! You're sitting here going on about all this stuff trying to make me feel guilty-" Nick begins to rant as he moves away from his place among the pillows.

"Stop it Nick..." Judy chokes out as a few tears begin to slip from her eyes.

"Not the tears, do you really have to start with the tears?"

"Get o-out." Judy commands as best she can through her clogged up throat.

 _What have I done..?_

"No wait, Carrots–

"Go away Nick!" The bunny yells.

 _She trusted me not to judge! I have to fix this-_

"Judy hold on, I just got worried-

"You got w-worried?! About what?" Judy yells.

"Alright maybe not worried but upset."

"Yeah you're- you're so upset right now!" Judy yells between gasps. She really wishes she could sound angry instead of sad and pathetic but it never worked out that way for her.

"You can't tell how I am or aren't feeling."

"But you c-can tell everything about me can't you? You just make one s-stupid assumption-

"Well maybe I got a bit defensive as well-

"You a-asked me to tell you Nick and you didn't even let me f-finish before you made an assumption! I wasn't talking about just you okay?! Everyone used to say that to me!" Judy cries out all at once.

Everything goes quiet for a few seconds while the two animals take a moment to gather their thoughts.

Eventually someone speaks.

"I think... I was all three of those things Carrots..." Nick starts.

"What do you mean?" Judy sighs and leans back on the bed in a way that says she's given up.

"I was worried because you've been holding onto bad things for so long, upset because I'm not good enough at this to know how to help you, and defensive because that's just how I am, that trait was bound to kick in at some point, and I'm sorry if I hurt you. I really didn't want to lose you as a friend just because of something stupid I said when we first met. Since I was really young I've never cared what people think about me or say to me or anything, but since you turned up its been different..."

Judy sits up and sniffs. "Really?"

"Yeah. I kinda have a thing for over-energetic, carrot eating, bunny, cops."

"And I think... I have a thing for sneaky, emotional, ex con-artists." Judy smiles as she lets out a sob and wipes her left eye with her palm.

"Hey hey hey, you were the one getting all emotional on me!"

"I was having a bad day, you know that."

Nick suddenly remembers something he was going to say. It could give her even more reason to call him emotional, more to hold over his head later but it probably needed to be said. "You know you did a really good thing Carrots."

"What? By telling you what was wrong when you asked? I've never really had too much trouble with that, except people like to point out most of the things that go wrong are because of life decisions that they told me not to make."

"That's called holding stuff over your head, and it isn't helpful. Anyone could say you would never have fallen over if you hadn't tried to stand up, but that's not what I was talking about. I meant ignoring all the idiots like me who told you you couldn't do what you wanted to do. And ignoring stuff like that can get pretty hard sometimes, so I want you to know you did good."

"Thanks Nick." Judy smiles and gets up from the bed.

Nick opens his arms as she approaches him for a hug.

"You know this seems familiar." Nick says as the bunny wraps her arms around him and presses her face into his shirt.

Judy laughs. "I know. I keep getting all emotional around you and it's ended this way twice."

Nick laughs too. "Too bad I don't have a carrot pen with me."

"You don't need to record what I say anymore Nick."

The fox smiles. "Thanks for trusting me Judy. I'm glad you told me."

 **I** **ended this the same as the last one!? I guess that means I'm sticking to the theme.**

 **Thank you so much for reading, I hope you liked it** :)


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